{"id":29597,"date":"2016-11-18T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=29597"},"modified":"2016-11-16T13:39:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T19:39:44","slug":"three-sisters-three-queens-by-philippa-gregory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/three-sisters-three-queens-by-philippa-gregory\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"threesisters\"<\/a>\u00a0Three Sisters, Three Queens<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is Philippa Gregory’s latest book about the Tudor Court. \u00a0This time, we get the perspective of Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and sister of King Henry VIII. \u00a0Margaret, the Tudor Princess, would become the Queen of Scotland, married to King James IV of Scotland and mother to King James V of Scotland. \u00a0Even though the title suggests that the book is about three women, the primary focus is on Queen Margaret. \u00a0However, the other two women, the Queen of England and the Queen of France, have an impact on Margaret’s life.<\/p>\n

The novel begins with Margaret as a young woman, a girl really. Her older brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales is to be married to Katherine of Aragon. Their marriage would form an alliance between the Spanish court and England. \u00a0Katherine of Aragon makes her arrival, marries Prince Arthur and they move to Wales. \u00a0Margaret misses her older brother, but looks forward to her own marriage. Her father, King Henry VII is working on a marriage between her and Scotland’s King James IV. \u00a0But then, the London court gets the terrible news that Prince Arthur has died. \u00a0Princess Katherine returns to court as the Dowager Princess. \u00a0Her parents have failed to pay the dowry money to England. \u00a0And King Henry VII refuses to pay her dowager money until the dowry has been paid. \u00a0Katherine literally is a poor princess and has to pawn off her belongings in order to eat, even though she lives at court. \u00a0Princess Margaret, having been jealous of Princess Katherine’s finery when she came to court, delights in seeing her brought down a peg. \u00a0She believes, along with her grandmother Margaret Beaufort, Lady Mother of the King, that Katherine is too arrogant and needs to learn humility. \u00a0In fact, Margaret calls her, Katherine of Arrogant to herself. At this time, Margaret is told that she will marry King James IV. \u00a0Their betrothal makes her a queen and she is one step lower than her Lady Mother, the Queen of England.<\/p>\n

Margaret makes the long journey to her new home in Scotland and marries King James IV. \u00a0Their marriage is fairly happy. \u00a0Their first children die while they are babies and King James wonders about the Tudor curse. \u00a0Queen Margaret has a son James (who becomes King James V). \u00a0Katherine of Aragon marries Margaret’s brother, King Henry VIII. \u00a0While England and Scotland have a Treaty of Perpetual Peace, Henry continues to ally himself with France, an enemy of Scotland. \u00a0While Henry is off in France, King James invades England. \u00a0During the Battle of Flodden, King James was killed. \u00a0Queen Katherine had ordered the English army to take no prisoners. \u00a0The army took James’ body to London and Katherine sent his bloody coat to Henry in France. \u00a0Of course, Queen Margaret was angry and heartbroken to have her husband be treated this way and by her own sister-in-law.<\/p>\n

You may be wondering about the third sister and third queen. \u00a0Margaret and Henry had a younger sister named Mary. \u00a0Mary had been betrothed to the Holy Roman Emperor’s grandson but that was called off. Instead, Princess Mary was joined in marriage to King Louis XII of France. \u00a0Their marriage did not last long due to the King’s age and health. \u00a0After he died, Mary went \u00a0ahead and married Charles Brandon, a friend of her brother Henry whom \u00a0had recently been made a Duke by King Henry. \u00a0The pair married in secret in France, without Henry’s blessing which they were punished for. \u00a0Even so, Charles and Mary were welcomed at the Tudor Court.<\/p>\n

Margaret continues to struggle. She is the Dowager Queen of Scotland but she has no authority. \u00a0She is even kept away from the young king James. \u00a0Her husband named her regent until their child was old enough to rule but the Scottish Council disregards this. \u00a0Instead, a French Duke (who is a cousin of the deceased king) is named regent. \u00a0Margaret marries the Earl of Angus for love in secret. \u00a0The Council is very unhappy about this. \u00a0Rumors circulate that Archibald, the Earl of Angus, is already married to another woman. \u00a0Of course, Margaret feels betrayed by her husband. \u00a0Her brother, Henry VIII will do nothing to help her. \u00a0Her sister-in-law, Queen Katherine, tells her to stay with her husband. \u00a0But Katherine needs Margaret to stay married to Archibald. \u00a0If Margaret would be granted a divorce from the Vatican, then that would clear the way for Henry VIII to divorce Katherine of Aragon. \u00a0And Henry has been having affairs with other women and producing male children. \u00a0Katherine has not given Henry an heir. \u00a0The royal English marriage is in danger of dissolving.<\/p>\n

Mary, the youngest of the original Tudor children still reports to Margaret. \u00a0Her letters had been happy ones, relaying to Margaret what had been happening at the English Court. \u00a0However, as time passes, her letters are filled with sorrow. \u00a0Mary is dismayed to see how her older brother, the King of England, is treating her sister-in-law, Katherine. \u00a0Mary has to witness Katherine’s sorrow as her husband sleeps with other women. \u00a0Katherine prays constantly and remains a dutiful wife. \u00a0Mary can do nothing to interfere as Henry VIII sets aside his wife, claiming that Katherine was not legally his wife, but the wife of his older brother, Arthur. \u00a0He claims that Katherine is the Dowager Princess of Wales and is now his “sister”. \u00a0The last letter Margaret receives from Mary is grim. \u00a0The woman, Anne Boleyn, is now married to their brother and will be crowned the Queen of England.<\/p>\n

Three Queens, Three Sisters<\/strong><\/em><\/a> is available in print<\/a>, large print<\/a> and audiobook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Three Sisters, Three Queens is Philippa Gregory’s latest book about the Tudor Court. \u00a0This time, we get the perspective of Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and sister of King Henry VIII. \u00a0Margaret, the Tudor Princess, would become the Queen of Scotland, married to King James[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[361,10,8],"tags":[3917,3918,3920,3915,3914,3916,1312,3919],"class_list":["post-29597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-books","category-books","category-staff-picks","tag-king-henry-viii","tag-king-james-iv","tag-philippa-gregory","tag-queen-katherine-of-aragon","tag-queen-margaret-of-scotland","tag-queen-mary-of-france","tag-scotland","tag-tudor-england"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-7Hn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29597"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29649,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29597\/revisions\/29649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}